Search Results for: America

BY KATE REW
CHEMICAL window cleaning agents could soon be redundant thanks to a new product soon to be introduced by Pilkington North America. Its Pilkington Aktiv glass is the first in the world to have self-cleaning properties.

The glass uses a so-called ‘photocatalytic effect,’ where the sun’s rays gradually and continuously break down organic dirt which then dissolves.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
WILL there come a day when a genuine European market in health care takes its place among the other landmark achievements of the European Union?

In terms of economic efficiency and the functioning of the internal market, does it make much sense for a million patients in Britain, say, to have to wait sometimes for a year or more for important operations while people in France or Luxembourg can book them for the next day and some German hospitals have barely half their beds filled?…

BY MONICA DOBIE
AFTER Mexican plantation workers walked off tobacco fields in Ontario, Canada, to protest about the deplorable working conditions, the Canadian section of the United Farm Workers of America has called for the establishment national labour standards to protect them.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE EUROPEAN Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it is lending US$40 million to Volkswagen Argentina S.A., a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, to support investment for the production of gearboxes for passenger cars in its plant located in Cordoba, Argentina.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
DIFFERENTIAL pricing in world pharmaceutical markets has been backed by a joint workshop involving the World Trade Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the Global Health Council and its national host, Norway.

A report released from the meeting has born out a general consensus reached by participants that “differential pricing could, and should, play an important role in ensuring access to existing essential drugs at affordable prices, especially in poor countries, while allowing the patent system to continue to play its role of providing incentives for research and development into new drugs.”…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE CANADIAN oil and gas industry has seen its largest corporate take-over when Houston-based Conoco Inc. agreed to buyout Gulf Canada Resources for CAN$6.7 billion in cash.

The deal will serve up a large piece of the natural gas pie for Texan giant Conoco in Canada, especially in the relatively untapped Mackenzie Delta gas deposits in the Northwest Territories.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
COMPANIES sending personal data to countries outside the European

Union will be able to ensure their legal compliance with the EU’s data protection directive by incorporating a set of new standard clauses in their contracts under proposals announced by the European Commission.…

Keith Nuthall
A REPORT from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calling for liberalisation is a little like a report from the Pope suggesting more prayer, but the world’s premier international think tank has refined its arguments regarding utilities in a recent formal recommendation to its member governments.…

BY KATE REW
THE FIRST electric bus to be powered by a zero-emission zinc-air battery is to start a series of test track trials in the United States, to show it can cope with the rigours of city and suburban driving.…

KEITH NUTHALL
ITALIAN textile houses have welcomed US Congress’ adoption of reforms to America’s rules of origin for textile products, which they claimed discriminated against European Union exports and broke World Trade Organisation rules.

When implementing the Uruguay Round GATT agreement, the United States had passed a law that insisted that cotton, silk and man-made fibres fabrics entering the EU at loom state to be dyed and printed, no longer qualified as EU products when they were exported.…